08-19-2025, 09:49 PM
I've seen several of these ages ago...probably as a teen, but I've never sat down and watched the whole series and got the bug recently to do that.
I'm using an app called "Just Watch" to track my queued movies and TV episodes across several devices. It served up the episodes thru Plex which had a lot of ads and always the same ones...and I finally got annoyed and switched to watching them on YouTube and surprisingly, there were much fewer ads.
It was created in 1970 and takes place in the far future of 1989. The show hasn't aged well. Ed Bishop plays Ed Straker, the head of S.H.A.D.O. - an organization based in England whose purpose is to intercept aliens that have been coming to Earth to harvest our organs (note: apparently, they only mentioned this in one episode and I missed it. I found out by watching a short BoS doc on YouTube that was pretty informative).
Brought to you by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, the folks behind Thunderbirds Are Go!, Supercar! And other "Super-Marionation" shows. From the doc, I learned that this was their first live-action series and came about because their puppet studio closed down. Many of the voice talent from the earlier shows were cast for various roles in SHADO...it shows in that 1) they are not very camera friendly and 2) their acting is terribly wooden...
Anyhoo, there isn't really a thru-line between the episodes (in fact, the order presented in the Just Watch app was different from that on the Plex app). mostly "aliens bad...let's blow things up - lots of pretty cool models and sets, and throw in a little mysogeny. The SHADO org is co-ed and multi-cultural, like Star Trek, but they only ask the gals to bring them some coffee...)
You've probably seen pix at some point, but the org has a moon base "manned" by 3 women (one of the actors is musician Nick Drake's sister) whose uniform is a silver leotard and purple helmet-wig. In episodes when they come to earth, they change out of both. Sylvia Anderson did all the "future fashions" and was pretty proud of her work, but I don't understand the practicality...
Moon base hosts a fleet of 3 "Intercepters" which are bug like spacecraft with a giant space torpedo mounted on the front. They seem to be only able to take one shot - again, I don't understand the practicality...
In several episodes, the aliens make it thru the moon defenses and so the second line of defense, a submarine with an aircraft mounted on the front has to assist. They launch the aircraft from underwater - again, practicality!?! And then it flies around and can take multiple shots. This sub/plane combo is named "SkyDiver" (with the first word printed on the plane and the second on the sub, so when they are docked, it says the full name...clever. Oh, and the crew of the sub all wear mesh tops, even the gals (sorry, no nipples on the ladies, just the men).
On one episode, there is a psychedelic party and the soundtrack is playing a Beatles song (forgot which one) I was surprised...I wonder what that cost them...
From the doc I learned that Gerry was given the go ahead for a second season, but then after building models and designing costumes, he was told the show was canceled so he proposed taking what he had and making a new show, and that's how Space: 1999 was born.
26 episodes
Not recommended
--tg
I'm using an app called "Just Watch" to track my queued movies and TV episodes across several devices. It served up the episodes thru Plex which had a lot of ads and always the same ones...and I finally got annoyed and switched to watching them on YouTube and surprisingly, there were much fewer ads.
It was created in 1970 and takes place in the far future of 1989. The show hasn't aged well. Ed Bishop plays Ed Straker, the head of S.H.A.D.O. - an organization based in England whose purpose is to intercept aliens that have been coming to Earth to harvest our organs (note: apparently, they only mentioned this in one episode and I missed it. I found out by watching a short BoS doc on YouTube that was pretty informative).
Brought to you by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, the folks behind Thunderbirds Are Go!, Supercar! And other "Super-Marionation" shows. From the doc, I learned that this was their first live-action series and came about because their puppet studio closed down. Many of the voice talent from the earlier shows were cast for various roles in SHADO...it shows in that 1) they are not very camera friendly and 2) their acting is terribly wooden...
Anyhoo, there isn't really a thru-line between the episodes (in fact, the order presented in the Just Watch app was different from that on the Plex app). mostly "aliens bad...let's blow things up - lots of pretty cool models and sets, and throw in a little mysogeny. The SHADO org is co-ed and multi-cultural, like Star Trek, but they only ask the gals to bring them some coffee...)
You've probably seen pix at some point, but the org has a moon base "manned" by 3 women (one of the actors is musician Nick Drake's sister) whose uniform is a silver leotard and purple helmet-wig. In episodes when they come to earth, they change out of both. Sylvia Anderson did all the "future fashions" and was pretty proud of her work, but I don't understand the practicality...
Moon base hosts a fleet of 3 "Intercepters" which are bug like spacecraft with a giant space torpedo mounted on the front. They seem to be only able to take one shot - again, I don't understand the practicality...
In several episodes, the aliens make it thru the moon defenses and so the second line of defense, a submarine with an aircraft mounted on the front has to assist. They launch the aircraft from underwater - again, practicality!?! And then it flies around and can take multiple shots. This sub/plane combo is named "SkyDiver" (with the first word printed on the plane and the second on the sub, so when they are docked, it says the full name...clever. Oh, and the crew of the sub all wear mesh tops, even the gals (sorry, no nipples on the ladies, just the men).
On one episode, there is a psychedelic party and the soundtrack is playing a Beatles song (forgot which one) I was surprised...I wonder what that cost them...
From the doc I learned that Gerry was given the go ahead for a second season, but then after building models and designing costumes, he was told the show was canceled so he proposed taking what he had and making a new show, and that's how Space: 1999 was born.
26 episodes
Not recommended
--tg
